World Problems

As we told you on ZME Science a while ago, we are nearing a global coffee crisis – if today’s trends continue, computer models show that Arabica coffee will become extinct in 70 years. Still, the taste for the drink increases more and more, even as more and more shadow is cast on its supposed [...]

Birke Baehr is only 11 years old, but he gave one of the best TED talks I’ve seen in a while. Here’s “What’s Wrong With Our Food System? And How Can We Make A Difference?” At age 9, while traveling with his family and being “roadschooled,” Birke Baehr began studying sustainable and organic farming practices [...]

Soil is becoming endangered – this is the reality a meeting between experts in Reykjavik has reached. They explain that this has to receive public awareness if we want to feed 9 billion by 2050. Soil degradation is life degradation   The main culprit is the one also responsible for global warming: Carbon. “Keeping and [...]

Tho global meat giants with shady food and environmental safety records shook hands as they are planning to become the world’s biggest meat producer. Smithfield Foods, the largest pork producer in the U.S., has been bought by China’s Shuanghui International Holdings Limited for $4.7 billion. The global meat industry, which is grasped firmly by a [...]

The Brazilian rain forest is a home to a slew of birds of all shapes, sizes and coloring – some 1,700 species to be more precise. One of such bird is the goofy looking  toucan, which can be easily recognized by its extremely long beak which can reach half the size of the bird’s body. Human [...]

Two generations from now, the over 9 billion people which are likely to walk the face of the planet will face dramatic water shortage, as climate change, pollution and overusage of resources start taking their toll, a group of 500 researchers warns. The thing is, if we, as a society continue developing at the same [...]

Last week, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization suggested that consuming edible insects can not only fight world hunger and help secure the global food supply, but also reduce greenhouse gases, and help save the environment. As far fetched and sci-fi that idea may sound, it’s not really as crazy as it sounds. 2 [...]

A bit late with on this story, but considering the importance of this rather unfortunate milestone, it’s best you all hear it again. On the 9th of May NOAA reported CO2 levels of 400.03 parts per million (ppm), which is a level unseen for three million years. This is the first time in human history that atmospheric [...]

Researchers at the  Cambridge-based National Institute of Agricultural Botany have cross-bred an ancient species of wheat with a modern variant to produce a new strain that is not only stronger (i.e. more resistant to pests), but which also yields a higher productivity. Preliminary tests found the ‘superwhat’ could outperform modern wheat variants by as much as [...]

A new study that examined ice core samples found that parts of Antarctica‘s ice are melting at at the highest pace this millennium. The findings put modern global warming into a historical context emphasizing the link between human induced climate change and rapid ice melting in the Arctic, considering it has increased tenfold since the dawn [...]